Thursday, May 14, 2009

External Inspiration:The RWD Ford Escort rally cars

I can hear all you “cage haters” now.I know, I know… you hate anything that doesn’t have 2 wheels and you are going to lynch me for posting pictures of a vehicle other than a bike on this blog about choppers.Get over it. It’s my blog, I can do what I want and not everyone in the universe hates cars.I happen to love all kinds of vehicles no matter how badly they are driven by people.And as I stated before in the “external inspiration” post… there is a lot of brilliant stuff going on with cars and other vehicles that you can learn from. Especially race vehicles.

So here is my first External inspiration post pertaining to cars.The European Rear wheel drive Escorts.The US never got any of these; they are just rear wheel drive, front engine, 2 door passenger cars powered by an inline 4 cylinder gas engine. Nothing special right?Wrong.The Escort went on to become the winning-est rallycar in the history of the world. (In case you don’t know what Rallying is… just start looking around on Youtube… it’s basically driving cars off and on road at insane speeds.)Driving light RWD cars on lose surfaces, really, really, REALLY fast isn’t exactly an ideal situation. Ideally you would use an all wheel drive vehicle right? Well, there weren’t any all wheel drive cars yet. Audi invented that in 1980 with the Sport Quattro. The MK I and MK II Escorts were made from 1968-1980.Not only did the Escorts dominate Rallying back in their day, they continue to destroy in modern competitions to this day. But it’s not so much that they win… but that they win in such a dramatic fashion. The RWD Escort is one of the most tail happy, oversteering race cars ever.Just take a look at these pics and videos.

So here is my point: taking an antiquated motorcycle frame with no rear suspension and making it handle good, and go fast is a challenge that some people say is futile and stupid.There are perfectly good bikes that can do everything with front and rear suspension and do it very cheaply. So why bother?

Taking a rear wheel drive 30 year old passenger car and trying to make it handle good and go fast on lose surfaces in a racing event that is clearly better suited for all wheel drive computer controlled, triple limited slipped quarter of a million dollar cars… is futile and stupid some people would say… So why bother?

But beyond that rather abstract connection... it's a race car. A light, fast, strong, old race car. There are tons of ways to lighten a vehicle, to make it stronger and work better. And spending time studying race cars can yeild tangible fruit in your attack chopper projects.

Take a look for yourself and you see if you can guess why I love the RWD Escorts.

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MY GOALS FOR THIS BLOG:

My goals for this blog are simple:1: Explain and champion the Attack chopper philosophy.2: Encourage others to build Attack choppers.3: Show examples of well built Attack choppers.4: Show well built bikes that may not be Attack choppers to inspire Attack chopper builders to build better bikes.5: Show sources of inspiration outside of the motorcycle sphere and chopper sphere of influence.6: Exalt the heros of the faith.

Disclaimer

This is not a blog about bikes with long front ends.This is not a blog about slow bikes.This is not a blog about bikes with huge wide fat tires.This is not a blog about bikes that can’t turn.This is not a blog about show bikes.

Core Principles of the Attack Chopper philosophy:

LIGHTSKINNYFASTTOUGHGOOD HANDLINGGOOD GROUND CLEARANCEGOOD BRAKES

My chopper manifesto

I do not accept the assumption that a rigid framed motorcycle cannot go fast, stop quickly, or handle well. I want my choppers to perform above the social accepted performance standard for rigid framed motorcycles; (that is to say: BAD) These are the standards I have set before myself to achieve with said choppers: My choppers must be able to Evade, Pursue, and allow me to survive.My choppers must be light.My choppers must be skinny and be able to navigate tight traffic with ease.My choppers must go fast, accelerate hard, stop well, handle good, and do so without fusing my vertabrae.My choppers must not scrape hard parts when leaning.My choppers are not bar hoppers.My choppers are not non-functioning scuplture.My choppers must function like a real, useable vehicle.My choppers must be a valid mode of transportation.My choppers must not be built for other peoples enjoyment or entertainment.My choppers must be built for me and my preferences and standards alone.My choppers must not be fragile.My choppers must be able to hop curbs, hit potholes, skid, wheelie, do burn outs and crash without breaking.My choppers must be able to be ridden on all sufaces (Pavement, dirt, gravel, snow, sand, mud)

Hero's and Inspiration

Flynch

Tom Rose

Joel Otto

Thorsten Durbahn

Burt Munroe

John Britten

My Brothers in the NFK

Basasra MC

The San Francisco 1%ers

Roland Sands

Indian Larry

Click here to read about how this all started

Why build and ride an Attack Chopper?

It's a lot of work and it isn't for everyone.. so why do it?

Click here to read Tom Rose's thoughts on why you should ride a kickstart ONLY bike.

You'll never look at an electric start bike the same again...

I got your adventure bike right here...

Rigids aren't show bikes. Use em.

Click here for a word about Jockey shifts, and spool hubs

Click here for a word about External inspiration:

Click here for a word about Crashproofing.

AKA: WWMMD? (What Would Mad Max Do?)

Click here for WWMMD part 2

Will you surive the apocalypse?

Click here for all the external inspiration you should ever need...

The nastiest car on the planet drips with inspiration for your Attack Chopper build..